


First Times

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: First Times, Gen, Multi, but ill add them as i go, i hope it isnt too bad, its basically them falling in love, its going to be a range of things, joyfire - Freeform, like days in the life, or too short, there also may be other people guess staring too, these will all be short one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2018-11-04 19:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10997130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: First times are milestones.Milestones in the life of crime and domestically. Of love and hardship. Of pain and fear.Even three best friends-turned-lovers learn new things about each other,Especially since one is a trigger-happy bird with a death wish, an ex-heroin addict with an arrow fetish and an alien who used to be a child slave.People like that are bound to have some baggage.





	1. The first time Jason knew he loved them

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, these are all going to be mini one-shots of life in the Joyfire home, from when they first decided they loved each other to their first fight to their first kiss. I hope it's ok and if anyone has any suggestions on what you want me to write, let me know!

The first time Jason knew he loved them, they had just come home from a shopping trip.

Roy had kicked open the door with his arms full of plastic bags. His soft hair was tied up in a messy bun. Kori was carrying a lighter load than Roy, but Jason knew she could’ve lifted their entire haul, easy. She was bright today. Smiling.

Jason had been off-duty for a week now after breaking a few ribs in an altercation with Killer Crock. Kori had prescribed him three days rest, to which Roy just shrugged his shoulders and turned away. Jason was beginning to get little stir-crazy staying at home and had sent the other two out shopping for food. As he’d put it, “If you two are going to sit around being lazy shits all day, you could at least find us something to eat.”

Now back home, Roy was singing in a scratchy, off-key voice and grinning widely, to which Kori shook her head. Jason raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well,” he said, placing his bags on the counter. “You haven’t been out of the house for a while, so I thought some music might make you feel a bit better.”

Jason rolled his eyes, biting back a grin of his own and replacing it with a scowl. “Gee, Roy,” he said, walking over to help unpack the shopping. “That’s a little sappy, don’t you think?”

“Sappy?”

“You know what that means, right?”

“Yeah, I do!” Roy slammed a can of baked beans on the bench and slid it across to Kori, who took it and placed it on the shelf. “Aren’t I allowed to care?”

Jason didn’t acknowledge the outburst. “Yeah well, cut it out. We don’t have time for that.”

There was silence as they unloaded the rest of the groceries. This was routine by now, and they went through it quickly. Kori and Jason tucking Roy’s things away on the highest shelf where they knew he couldn’t reach them, Roy hiding Jason’s cigarettes in places nobody would look.

Roy started humming again, and Jason pursed his lips. He made a move to leave the room when Kori began to sing as well.

“Kids with guns. Kids with guns…”

It was soft, gentle singing. Koriand'r had the best voice out of all of them, sweet like warm honeydew.

Roy’s head shot up like a rocket and he continued, with the line, “Taking over, but it won't be long…”

Scratchy singing mixed with sweet melodies. They both paused as though waiting for Jason to continue. He sighed and slowly turned back to them, over the shoulder with his head before his body. “They’re mesmerised. Skeletons.”

With a gasp and wide eyes, Roy and Kori rushed forward and embraced Jason in a hug. “Kids with Guns! Kids with Guns!”

That was the first time Jason knew he fell in love with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song is "Kid's with Guns" by the Gorillaz because it reminds me of Jason.


	2. The first time Kori had to stitch up her boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a bit longer than I would have liked but thank you to the-casual-cheesecake for helping me edit and fashionablesnider for being patient with me when I asked: "what does a broken bone look like?" even though they had no idea

The first time Kori had to stitch up her boys, they had just come home from a drug bust.

Jason kicked the door open, making the hinges creak and breaking the lock again as he stumbled through the front door, hand pressing on his shoulder. He went to a cabinet and pulled out a first aid kit then plonked himself down on a kitchen chair with a groan, removing his hand along with the roughly put on bandages wrapped around his shoulder. He pulled out alcohol rub and some new bandages, placing them on the table beside him, then grabbed a pair of tweezers.

Kori came next, Roy's arm slung over her neck. He was hopping on one leg and it looked puffier than it should be and the arm that wasn’t currently occupied was around his middle, holding in a bleeding patch, breath coming in wheezes. Kori herself was fine, she is nearly indestructible and it takes a lot to hurt her, but she was still bleeding from a cut on her arm from where she got sloppy and tried to take on more than she could handle, leaving her right side open for a throwing knife to embed itself deep in her arm. She had the general aches and pains that came with being thrown about like a doll and lifting heavy machinery that would usually only be lifted by a crane, but she was used to that.

She pulled another chair out from the table with a rough squealing on the kitchen tiles, back facing Jason and sat Roy down on it. He grunted as he knocked his leg against the table, letting out a hiss as he tried to move it again. Squelching was coming from behind Roy. “For the love of- “Jason was jabbing the tweezers into the hole in his shoulder, trying to fish out the bullet. “I don’t remember this being so hard.”

With a look at Roy to make sure he was alright, and a nod accompanied by a jerk of the head to tell her to help him, a whispered “wait for me”, Kori left Roy and floated to Jason’s side, slapping his hand away and taking the tweezers. “You’re going to push in deeper,” she scolded him as he opened his mouth to question her. “Then what are you going to do? We won’t be able to get it out.” The whites of Jason’s eyes showed as he rolled them back into his head when Kori started dressing his wound, but he sat back without another word.

It hurts her, to see the people she loved in so much pain. How men with defences and walls built so high up an army couldn’t reach their castle within. With wit and strength to back up their every movement, every thought, every action. To see men, who spent their whole lives question who they are and where they belonged in the world, finally find a place where they feel like they fit in getting torn down into a broken mess of stinking blood and tears. To have two of the strongest people she knows get hurt badly enough that it leaves them moaning and sobbing on the bathroom floor, a bottle of painkillers in one hand, gagged with a towel to muffle the noise and fingers stained red and rust brown from digging for a bullet with their bare hands. She hates it, and it hurts her. Almost as much as it hurts them.

“Have you got it yet?” Jason asked her, voice tight with pain and a white-knuckled grip on the table leg. “Not yet,” she told him, as she pulled a small torch they stole from a dentist and directed the light to the bullet hole. “It’s in really deep.”

A grunt and the snap of bone being jerked back into place caught Kori’s attention and she snapped her head up to look at Roy, who had tied a scarf that was on the floor around his leg and the base of the TV stand, and had pulled his leg hard enough that the bone had slipped back where it was supposed to be and the skin levelled out a bit more. Kori could hear his breaths coming in quick wheezing gasps and tears glistening in his wide eyes as he blinked them away before they could leave trail tracks down his face. He put his arm on the table and buried his face in the crook of his elbow, facing away from Kori. His breathing was short bursts of gasps that wavered and he was shaking, trembling so badly she could she the hairs on his head jostle and rearrange themselves.

Jason gasped against her and squeezed his eyes shut tight as Kori found the edge of the bullet and pulled, trying to dislodge it. “Roy!” She called as Jason tipped his head back, resting on Roy's shoulder. He turned his head in confusion and opened his eyes to look at Roy, whose neck was glistening with sweat. “I told you to wait for me! Are you ok?”

“Fine,” Roy ground out with clenched teeth, biting back a sob. “Just fine. Fix Jason, then you can help.”

Kori sighed as she went back to pulling the bullet out of Jason’s shoulder. She was getting some headway; she could see the end of the tweezers. She was going slow, trying not to hurt him but by the bobbing of his Adam's apple, as he swallowed and the sweat shining on his face and the fat droplets falling down under his collar, she was hurting him more that she thought. But he didn’t say anything. “Stop trying to be a hero,” she said to Roy as he shifted. “We already have Jason for that, I don’t need you to be emotionally stunted when it comes to pain and taking care of yourself, it won’t do anything but hurt you.” Jason gave a snort from above her but otherwise didn’t say anything.

“You didn’t say that when I took the bullet for you,” Roy said. It was true. Kori relived the memory Roy taking a bullet meant for her and having it embedded in his abdomen, falling off of the catwalk and breaking his leg on the hard concrete floor 3 flights below.  
“I’m indestructible Roy,” Kori told him, finally pulling the bullet out of Jason. He sighed and his shoulders relaxed, his head falling to rest on his chest. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“You're bleeding too, so actually not so indestructible, Princess.”

She looked at her arm, the wound a dark brown from where the blood had dried and was already clotting to stop the blood from flowing out. “That’s different. I heal faster than you.”

She grabbed the sewing needle and thread from the first aid kit and placed it on Jason’s arm, threading it in and out until it came out the other side of the wound and closed. She broke the string and stood. “Don’t move an inch.” She told Jason and received a quiet “Mmmmm” in return. She made her way over to Roy, who was pressing his arm into his stomach, head on the table and on the verge of tears. Some had even fallen down his face to make a small puddle on the tabletop.

“Roy,” she whispered, placing an arm on his shoulder. His face was pale and pain stricken, sweat beading on his brow. His arm tightened around his middle and he opened his eyes, tears brimming and ready to fall. “It’s ok. Let me help you.” Kori knelt down and moved his hand, unclipping his chest armour and placing it on the floor beside her. She didn’t want to know what the bullet had done to Roy if the bullet was so powerful it could pierce Roy’s armour. The thought made her shiver.

The bullet in Roy wasn’t as deep as Jason’s was, so Kori grabbed the tweezers and got it out fairly easily. She stitched it up and dressed it, wrapping a bandage around his middle. When she was finished she bent down to get a look at his leg for the first time and a hiss slipped past her lungs. His leg was swollen and puffy, deep purple bruises went around the break like waves, all around the leg. It was like someone had given a toddler a paintbrush and left them alone with purples and blues and blacks and Roy’s leg was the canvas.

“This is bad Roy,” Kori said, looking up at him again. “I’m going to need to put it in a splint, and take you to the hospital in the morning.” She untied the scarf from around his leg and walked to get a piece of wood from the backyard. She grabbed 2 of Jason’s belts from their bedroom and some towels from the hallway cupboard.

“Don’t bother looking for the splint Kori,” Jason called from the kitchen. “I gave it to Tim last time he came. Broke his ankle the idiot.”

Ah. That explains it.

She walked back into the bedroom and dug around until she found two of Roy’s bandannas, and made her way back to the boys. When she got there, she saw Jason passing Roy a bottle of painkillers and her throat tightened as he then dry-swallowed five with a visibly shaking hand. Kori didn’t bother to tell him not to and just walked past them to the kitchen to get an ice pack from the fridge.

Roy whistled as she walked by him, and when she turned around Jason was smirking.

“What?” She asked, coming back around to kneel at Roy's feet.

“An ass like that should be illegal.”

Jason burst into loud booming laughter that made him shake and Kori watched as he grabbed hold of his shoulder with the bullet hole when it started hurting. Kori grinned as she placed the ice pack on Roy’s leg. He hissed at the sudden icy cold. She took it off and wrapped it in a towel and put it back. She grabbed the wood and put it on the side of his leg, using Jason’s belts to secure it in place. Then she used the bandanas and tied it around the foot and ankle. She gently lifted the leg and Roy gasped as she yanked some chairs together and put the rolled up towels on them, placing Roy’s leg on them.

“Doctors tomorrow.” She told him as she stood up. “Both of you. And no exceptions.”

“Kori,” Jason had bent her head back to look at her, so he was looking upside-down. “Can’t we just go to the cave and get Alfred to do it? I’m technically dead on Gotham’s records and everyone will ask what happened to Roy, and we can’t exactly tell them. I’ll just call up Alfred in the morning and we’ll all head down.”

Kori thought for a moment before she nodded. “That’s acceptable.”

“Good,” Roy said, closing his eyes slightly. “Now, can someone get me a beer? I just wanna relax.”

Kori laughed, bending down to plant a slow kiss to Roy’s lips. She pulled away with a chuckle when he gave a startled noise and snapped his eyes open. She walked over to Jason and did the same thing, except Jason wasn’t surprised and kissed her back instantly.

When they decided to call it a night, Jason and Kori had stolen the couch and had forced Roy onto the recliner, and they fell asleep to the TV silently staining their bodies neon pinks and pastel blues and with ravens cawing in the trees outside.

That was the first time Kori had to stitch up her boys.


	3. The first time Roy had a nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for fashionablesnider and the-casual-cheesecake for helping me edit and for your fantastic feedback! Hope you all enjoy :)

The first time Roy had a nightmare, they had all fallen asleep.

Jason had passed out on the couch, TV playing a crappy rom-com as background noise. An arm was slung over his eyes to shield them from the blaring light and he had a blanket thrown over his lap, now sliding off.

Kori had gone to bed when the sun started to set with a mumbled explanation of being more tired than usual and not getting much sleep the past week. She was bundled in the covers, hair tangled within the bed frame and pillows, feat hanging off the edge.

Nobody had seen Roy since lunch, heading to his workshop to work on some things, he’d told them. “Pfft, work on projects or work on your personal problems?” Jason had joked. “Maybe a little bit of both.” Roy replied, turning around and sticking his tongue out at him.

At 3:45 in the morning, the last thing Jason or Kori had expected to hear was screaming.

Kori bolted upright in bed, rubbing at her eyes and smoothing her hair back into place as she quickly swung her feet off of the bed and looked for some clothes.

Still mostly asleep, Jason wasn’t worried about the noise. He thought it came from the zombie horror movie he was watching before he clocked it. But he opened his eyes and saw the screen playing a  _ very _ vivid sex scene that he started getting worried. He sat up and yawned, shuffling to their bedroom.

“Kori, you ok?” He asked when he pushed open the door. He blinked a few times when he saw her not lying in bed next to Roy drenched in sweat and crying, but on her hands and knees trying to get a slipper out from under the bed with one of Roy’s arrows.  _ Yup _ he thought as he watched her  _ she’s definitely fine. _

He looked back to the bed. Instead of seeing a mass of pale limbs and bright red hair poking out randomly from under the covers, he saw nothing but the black sheets and the indent Kori had made in the bed. “Where’s Roy?” He asked, concerned.

Kori snapped her head up to look at him, eyes blown wide. “I thought he was with you.”

Jason spun on his heels and sprinted through the house. “Roy!” He whisper-yelled, not wanting to make much noise in case there was somebody with him. “Where are you?”

He reached Roy’s workshop door and was about to walk past it when he stopped.  _ He can’t still be in there… can he? _

He saw Kori glide up behind him and he gave her the same look she gave to him. Fear. They pressed their ears to the heavy metal doors and the coolness shocked them enough to wake them up that little bit more. Kori covered her mouth with her hand and Jason’s opened so wide it almost hit the floor.

They could hear sobbing, mumbling and pleas floating through the door like a siren’s song. Whoever was inside was having a tough time. Jason just hoped it wasn’t…

One look at Kori confirmed what he was thinking.

_ Roy. _

Jason reached down and frantically fiddled with the handle, turning it and shoving the door open with his shoulder. He rushed inside and twisted before he could hit the edge of a workbench. He crouched down, slowly making his way further inside. He picked up a gun that was lying on one of the benches and slowly pulled back the barrel until it clicked. In the darkness of the room, he could see the faint purple glow from the sparks from Kori’s fingers behind him.

They inched forward until they could hear the whimpering. Kori put her hand on Jason’s shoulder and leant forward so that her mouth was at his ear.

“That’s Roy,” she whispered “Do you think he’s hurt? Is there someone in here with him?”

“I don’t know,” He whispered back. “If there is, why didn’t he press the alarm?”

“I’m worried.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “Can you give us some light?”

Kori’s hair suddenly glowed brighter, lighting the place an eerie red, and Jason stood up, placing the gun in front of him and aiming it around for an intruder.

“Roy?” he called. He walked a little further until he was in the centre of the room and froze.

Sitting on the floor, in the fetal position with his arms around his knees and shaking from head to toe was Roy. Jason lowered his gun as he heard sobbing and gasping, placing it on the table

“Roy,” he said quietly as he went closer, “Are you alright?” He reached out to grab his shoulder and shake him awake, but Kori reached her arm out and snatched his hand away.

“What?” he asked her.

“He’s asleep.” She said sadly.

Jason looked again. Roy’s eyes were firmly shut, tears leaking out of the corners and washing away the dirt on the concrete. His hair was matted in dark oil and his hands were covered in dust and grease. He was gasping for air as though he couldn’t breathe and he was  _ moaning _ .

Long, broken, fearful moans that sounded like he was having his heart ripped out of his chest.

Jason couldn’t remember the last time he had ever seen Roy have a nightmare. It was usually his job to console the others through their own, but Jason didn’t think that Roy had ever actually had a nightmare in front of himself and Kori.

“We have to wake him up.” He said, reaching back down.

“I do not think he would be very pleased with us being here.” Kori warned.

“We can’t just leave him like this.”

“He probably won’t be able to face us if he wakes up and sees that we were here.”

“I don’t care.” Jason snapped. He hardly ever snapped at Kori, but he felt like she couldn’t hear him. “We can’t just sit by and watch. He never does when he catches us having nightmares.”

Kori didn’t object when Jason reached his arms down again and gently placed his hand on Roy’s shoulder.

“Roytoy,” He said, singsong. Like you would a child, “Time to wake up.” He started to shake him, and Roy’s face scrunched up in pain. Jason shook him harder.

“You’re hurting him!” Kori yelled, grabbing Jason’s forearm and was about to pull away when Jason gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist.

“I don’t think I am, Kori.”

“Then why- "

“I think he’s dreaming about being hurt and because he can feel me, maybe he thinks he really is.”

Kori looked from Roy’s pain stricken and twisting face to Jason’s hand, barely putting any pressure on Roy’s shoulder at all. She sat back on her folded legs and put her hands on her thighs. She looked up and met Jason’s eyes.

“Wake him up.”

Jason started shaking him again. “Harper, wake up!”

Roy’s eyes snapped open, full of terror. Kori and Jason jumped backwards in surprise. His eyes were wide and unseeing, darting around the room but glazed over. “Roy,” Jason asked tentatively “You with us man?”

Starting to hyperventilate, Roy writhed on the floor, forcing Jason and Kori to move backwards some more.

“No,” Roy whispered, staring at an image only he could see, “No! No!” He was shouting now, begging for some unseeing nightmare to  _ stop _ .

“Roy it’s us!” Kori pleaded “We’re your friends! Please, stop this!”

Jason went to move on top of Roy, to stop him from scratching his arms on screws that were scattered on the floor and from snapping his head back and banging it on the hard floor, but Roy twisted onto his front and stood. He sprinted out the door and soon doors could be heard opening and closing.

“What is he doing?” Kori screamed, standing with Jason. “Does he not recognise us?”

“He’s still asleep.” Jason told her, making his way around the workbenches. One had been moved out of place and there were scuffle marks on the floor. Roy must have run into it and moved it on his hurry out.

“What kind of nightmare could make someone act like that?” Kori asked as she made her way out the door and through the house.

“That’s not a nightmare.”

“Of course it is. What else could it be?”

“No.” Standing at the front door, Jason grabbed a torch from the coffee table and shone It outside. They were staying on Kori’s ship on the beach, the torch lighting up Roy’s footprints in the sand. “That’s a night-terror.”

Kori didn’t need to ask what the difference was. She had watched Jason have enough of them to know, seen his scream himself hoarse, held him down while he shook and Roy stroked his fingers through his hair, begged him to  _ please please wake up,  _ had sobbed with him when he cried.

She took off down the sand, forgetting she could fly faster than she could run. Sand flew up and caught the wind, hitting Jason as he ran behind her. Roy’s footsteps shone in the light of the torch, and they followed them as best they could. They seemed to leave a breadcrumb trail back and forth and round again, going in spirals to god knows where.

They found Roy on the water’s edge, waves lapping on his legs as he kneeled on the sand. Hunched over and head hidden in his hands, Roy’s usually unruly hair looked like it had been ripped and pulled. His shoulders were shaking, too much to just be from the cold.

His shirt was missing, and they tried to figure out if he had gone to sleep in one or not. They couldn’t remember.

“Roy,” Kori said gently, arms out and making small steps towards him. She didn’t want him to fight back again. “It’s us. It’s us, we’re not going to hurt you.”

“He can’t hear you.’ Jason told her. He knew from experience. “He won’t hear you until he wakes up.”

The sobbing was getting louder, faster, harder. His shoulders were shaking more and his breathing was short. There was a bruise on his hip from where he had hit the workbench, dark purple already.  

“Roy,” Kori tried again, making her voice drip with sickly sweet kindness that tasted like sour acid on her tongue. Now was not a time for fake sweetness. Now was a time for concern. “Baby, it’s us. We’re not here to hurt you- “

“Go away Kori!” Roy snapped, body hunching into itself and shoulders sagging, “You too Jason!”

“We’re not here to hurt you!” Jason begged. He couldn’t remember the last time he had 

begged for anything, but right now he begged for Roy to be ok, “Just… let us come closer. We’ll take you inside and get you warmed up and- “

“No!” Roy screeched, covering his ears, “Don’t touch me! Don’t come any closer!”

“Why not Roy?” Kori cried, hands covering her mouth.

“I don’t want to hurt you again!”

Jason could hear Kori’s gasp and knew she was racking her memory for the last time Roy had hurt them, had let them down, had failed them. He couldn’t think of any.

“Roy,” Jason said, taking careful steps forwards. His feet crunched quietly on the sand and he hoped that the waves did  _ something  _ to muffle the sound. “What did you dream about?”

“No,” Roy mumbled, lost in his own mind, “No, no, no.”

Jason made it to his side and crouched down, gently putting his arm Roy’s shoulders. He didn’t want him to push Jason away and run again.

He didn’t recoil.

Instead, Roy turned his head and buried his face in the crook of his neck and Jason tangled his fingers in his hair while he cried. Kori joined them soon, sitting on Roy’s other side and held him, warming them both up.

Jason could hear faint words coming through Roy’s sobs, and he bent his head down to whisper in his ear. “What are you sorry for, Roy?”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you in time.” Roy managed, breath hitching, “I never want to lose you.”

“And you won’t.” Kori promised, kissing a burning trail of love up the back of his neck, “We’ll always be here for you, beloved. We won’t leave your side.”

Sometime later, when the exhaustion had worn Roy out and he had fallen asleep on Jason. Kori carried him back to their bed and they fell asleep in the same position they always do when Jason’s night terrors shook them awake, except with yet another member of their small group, Kori thought with a lump in her throat.

“Do you think he’s going to be ok?” Kori had whispered into the darkness, her hand sprawled on Roy’s chest and Jason’s fingers in his hair. “Yeah,” He had replied, kissed Roy’s forehead and watched as a small smile formed on the archer's lips, “He’s going to be fine.”

That was the first time Roy had a nightmare. 


	4. The first time Jason ran away

The first time Jason had run off, Kori and Roy were both reading in the lounge.

Kori was reading a tameranian book about insects, the cover a bright green, a purple slug with 3 heads and razor-sharp teeth gleamed out from the cover. Roy’s book of choice was a thick pale blue volume containing blueprints and schematics for new inventions, instruction manuals and future projects.

Jason had left with the pretence of changing his newly-finished book, exchanging it for “Samson”, replacing his old one back to its proper place on the dusty shelf with all the others. The old weathered spine of “The 12 Labours of Hercules” glared back at him as he returned it back to its slot, as though it was offended that it wasn’t being read.

Closing his eyes, Jason tried to tune out the rest of the world. Tried to imagine that he was in the middle of the forest, the wildlife echoing around him, sticks and leaves crunching beneath his feet-

“Samson” was a heavyweight in his hand, and Jason opened his eyes to inspect it. _You wouldn’t find a book out in a forest_ , he pondered. He was in a library then. A silent library, nothing but the hush of breathing, the sharp intake of excited breaths and the quiet yet distinct turning of pages. He pretended he was anywhere but in his den, hiding from his lovers.

He opened his eyes, silently placing the book down on a table and peeked his head out through the doorway. He smiled at Kori draped in a large white blanket, sipping a lemon-honey tea from a flowery mug. Roy was sleepily scribbling in a notebook and taking notes down from his instruction book. His head was resting on his hand, his fingers tangled in his hair, and Jason knew that these past few days of not sleeping had started to take a toll on him.

_The past few nights of him staying up because he’s been worried about me_ he thought, his eyes trailing the dark brown cracks in the wooden flooring.

Jason was coming home later and later, wanting to stay out longer so he could leave Kori and Roy alone for a little while more so they didn’t have to deal with him. Kori didn’t know, hadn’t worked out that Jason’s sudden absence from their bed and their dining table was not just a coincidence or a need for space, but a feeling of guilt and fear for them that had driven him away. Jason hopped she never found out.

Roy, on the other hand, noticed the abrupt disappearance straight away and had stayed awake until Jason had come back the next morning. Had sat in at the dining table and watched all the doors and listened for the subtle tapping of Jason’s steel-capped boots or the quiet clicking of the door handle. Had approached Jason with demands and questions only to be turned down and ignored. Jason hated the hurt look on his face when he had walked away the first time, never wanted to hurt his Roy like that again. But he knew he had to. Hurt him to heal him. Hurt him to help him.

Jason silently walked towards the kitchen, ignoring the conversation happening in their impromptu library, instead grabbing his keys as quietly as he could, slipping them into his jacket pocket. Roy let out a yawn loud enough to be heard from the other end of the house, and Jason took it as his chance to quickly turn the squeaky door hinge. The night air was crisp when he walked out into it, and he was glad that he had decided to bring a jacket.  

Stopping under the open window, Jason paused his slow crawl away from the house to overhear the conversation Kori and Roy were having inside. He rested one hand on his knee, the other on the floor and one leg bent under his body as he listened.

The hard slap of Kori’s book surprised Jason, cutting of Roy’s yawn and snapping him upright. “You should sleep, Roy.”

Finishing off his yawn, Roy had his hand in front of his face, muffling his next words.  “Nah, Princess.” He mumbled, over-tired and somewhat delirious. Jason felt that stab of guilt again, right in his chest.  “I’m not sleeping until Jaybird passes out.”

“You look like you haven’t slept in days, Roy. Maybe weeks.”

“Maybe it has been weeks. Who knows? Not me.”

Kori made a sound of outrage, and Roy let out an ‘ _oof’_ as a pillow was thrown at him. “That’s not good!” She whisper-yelled, afraid Jason- who she thought was still in the other room- would hear. “Why aren’t you taking care of yourself? Do I have to monitor you like I have to monitor Lian?” 

Roy let out a sigh of exasperation. “Kori- “

“Does Jason know?” She demanded, interrupting Roy.

A pause. “Yeah, he knows. He knows why too. I just, I wanna make sure we’re all asleep in bed before I konk it.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Does anything I say ever make sense to you?”

Kori groaned. “It’s not my fault you talk in numbers and circles. Why can’t you just speak English? We can all speak English in this house, and not even Jason can speak Harper.”

Jason could practically hear Roy’s shit-eating grin. “Why don’t you come over here and kiss me so I can teach it to you?” A soft thud and laughter as Roy obviously caught the next pillow thrown at him made Jason smile, closing his eyes to breathe in the scent of cinnamon and gunpowder that their homes always seemed to smell of. “Speaking of Jaybird, where is he? Can it really take this long to choose a book?” Roy’s chair creaked as he stood up, grunting as he stretched. Footsteps receded towards the kitchen, and Jason quietly untucked himself from his position to creep across their lawn.

He reached his bike and quietly put it into drive, slowly walking it out of the woods and further through the trees. Once he reached the old dirt road that led into Gotham, he turned the ignition on his bike and jumped on, the thrum of the engine rumbling through his bones, riding as fast as he could towards his old forsaken hometown. 

When Roy couldn’t find Jason in the den or the kitchen, he knew something was up. When he couldn’t find Jason’s keys, he took off towards the door shouting, running towards the thickets. When he heard the engine of Jason’s bike reeve, Kori followed him out of the safe house and chased after him. When Kori reached him, he was on his hands and knees in the dirt with his face in his hands, shaking.

“Roy?” She asked, kneeling down and gently touching his shoulder. “What’s wrong? Where’s Jason?”

Whipping the tears, he doesn’t remember shedding, Roy used Kori’s arm as leverage to stand and walked inside, stepping around the counter and the lounge, shoving open the door to his workshop and kicking a wrench out of the way of the door. Side-stepping the benches and tool boxes, he strode towards the computer at the other end, partially obscured by large sheets of blueprints and machinery. He yanked the keyboard out from under the blue paper, turned the computer on and opened a program with the loading symbol of a microchip. “Roy,” Kori questioned, “what in god’s name are you doing?”

“I’m finding Jason, Princess,” fingers flying frantically across the keys, opening up programs and writing out codes. “What does it look like?”

“How are you going to do that?” Kori asked, perplexed, trying to tidy a spot on a bench for her to sit, giving up when her hand landed in a puddle of black oil, and she wiped it on a rag. “What’s going on that I don’t know about?”

With a final click, coordinates appeared on the screen next to a picture of Jason’s bike, another next to his helmet. The bike location was rapidly going up and changing, but his helmet was stationary. “He left his helmet here,” Roy observed, clicking an option and making his phone _ding_ by transferring the location. “We better get going.”

Kori grabbed his arm on his way past, “Explain to me what’s going on, Roy Harper, or so be it, I will gouge out your eyes and use your head as a bowling ball.” An empty threat, but Roy knew better than to push her buttons.

Sighing, Roy grabbed her hand and led her out of the safe house. “I’ll explain on the way, but right now- I know where he is. I don’t know how long he is going to be there for, I don’t know when he’s going to stop. But if we can catch him in time, we can find a way to bring him back.”

Silently, Kori grabbed Roy and shot up into the air, holding him close as they forced through the chilly air, the silent promise of forcing the truth out of him on the flight to Woop-woop.

* * *

 

Jason didn’t know what compelled him to drive here, to park his bike in front of this building. Maybe it was a beacon, a safe haven. Whatever it was, he was both afraid and relieved that out of all places he could have mindlessly gone to, this was the one.

Parking his bike in a spot in the carpark, he noticed that there were very few cars in the carpark, except for a blue and black motorbike under a tarp and a BCPD police car, parked under cover. There were a few sparse cars dotted around, and a few parked in the many disabled parking spaces closest to the entry. He found it odd and walked over to the bike to pull it completely under the tarp, the electric blue hiding from sight.

The apartment block was quiet, the large, ornate doors at the front like an old 60’s sitcom, the little light above the door casting a yellowed light over the doormat. A note in familiar messy handwriting was posted above the buzzer, claiming that the bell wasn’t working and to just walk in. When Jason turned the door handle, it moved almost effortlessly, and the hinges barley creaked.

He silently walked the stairs, winding upwards to the top floor. It was a rather small building, only 7 stories high, but there were only 3 rooms on each floor. He walked past some of the occupants, a few bumped into him and profusely apologised, some ignored him, once he walked between a conversation two people were having from their front doors. He found the whole experience weird, wondering if he should have put his domino mask in his pocket instead of walking the halls like a kid who was celebrating Halloween early.

When he got to the only room on the top floor, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door, cursing this city for making him do this. Even though he knew it wasn’t the city’s fault, but he needed someone to blame that wasn’t himself. He debated turning around and leaving, forgetting his plan and backtracking away before anyone even knew he was here. But as he took a step back, the door swung open and he was greeted by a very tired, shirtless man with the top half of a blue and black uniform hanging down around his waist

“Oh, hey Baby Bird!” Dick grinned, now very much awake. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? Come in! Let me get you a drink.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jason awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, walking past Dick who had stepped aside so Jason could enter, stopping in the lounge room and shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Yeah, I didn’t mean to come here. But I’m glad I did, I guess.”

Dick stopped opening cabinets to look at Jason. “Oh?” he questioned, hoping Jason would answer without Dick having to prompt him. When he didn’t, Dick pulled a mug down from the shelf and turned to face Jason. “Where’s Kori and Roy? They sick of my face?”

“No, uh,” Jason’s eyes were downcast, unreadable. “They’re at home. I needed to get out for a little while.”

“Right…” Dick tried not to look at him as he turned on the kettle, fumbled in the fridge for that chocolate cake he still had a few slices of, grabbed a spoon from the drawer. “Relationship problems?”

“Uh, you could say that.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

Jason changed the subject. “What’s with your apartment, Dickie? The only cars in the parking lot are yours and a few others, and everyone in this damn building keeps pretending they can’t see me. What’s up with that?”

Pausing what he was doing, Dick steadied himself on the kitchen counter as he chuckled. “That’s because they can’t see you Jaybird.” He corrected “They’re blind.”

“Uh, what?”

“This apartment is full of blind and visually-impaired people. No-one can see me come and go, nobody asks questions, nobody sees me jump out of windows in the dead of night, they don’t see me come home bloodied and bruised, I don’t get hassled for the new police info. Hell, I’m not even sure if they know my name.”

_Smart,_ Jason thought, appreciatively.

“So,” Dick continued, adding sugar to the mug. Jason almost snorted as he realised it was decorated with cartoon vampire bats. “What’s happened? Did you guys have a falling out?”

“Uh, no,” Jason mumbled. “I’m just… giving them space is all.”

Dick raised his eyebrows in a manner that told Jason that he was _not_ convinced, but before he could pester Jason any more, his landline rang and he excused himself to go and answer it.

Wandering over to the bookshelf to flick through his brother’s collection, Jason tried not to listen to the conversation between Dick and what sounded like Harper, who apparently wanted to come over with Cullen the next day, but when he heard his name, Jason looked up. “Yeah, Jay’s over. Relationship problems I think. Yeah, you can still come over, I doubt he’ll be staying the night and if he does he’ll be gone before I wake up. Because that’s just how he is, Harp. Yeah alright. Ok. Goodnight, see you tomorrow. Tell Cullen I say hi. Ok, I will. C’ya.”

Putting the phone back, Dick gave Jason the side eye. “Harper says hi.” He said, lifting the ketal and pouring boiling water into the mugs. “Now, why do you need to give Kori and Roy ‘space’?”

Jason bit the inside of his cheek. He should have been thinking of an excuse instead of eavesdropping and skimming books, but now he had nothing. “No reason.” He mumbled, going to sit on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table.

Dick slammed the kettle down and stared hard at Jason. “Jason Peter Todd,” He ground out lowly, outraged, making Jason flinch. _Putting on his batman voice_ , he thought. “You’re not doing that thing, the stupid thing where you _think_ people are better off without you, and that you’re a nuisance to everyone, so- so instead of talking about it and dealing with it properly, you just get up and leave whenever, without telling them so you can try and make them think their better off without you and end up stop talking to you and stuff, are you? Tell me you’re not, Jason.”

Jason chewed on his lip. “Maybe.”

“For the love of Batman holding a hand grenade, why do you always do this to people you get close to?” He cried, waving his arms high in the air.

“Batman doesn’t use hand grenades.”

“That’s the point. If he did, we’d all be in trouble.”

Jason cocked his head to the side. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Jay, I haven’t slept in 2 days,” he sighed, plonking down beside him with the mugs. “That’s boarding on Tim level of bad.”

“No, Tim level of bad it _7_ days. But I get your point.”

“Uh huh, and how long has it been since Roy and Kori slept, with you being gone all the time and not telling them? Huh?”

The coffee was still scalding, but Jason brought it to his lips and blew to try and cool it down anyway, the liquid burning his tongue when he took a sip. “Kori doesn’t know,” he said quietly, staring at the swirling patterns the smoke was making on the surface “Didn’t know. She probably does now.”

“And Roy?”

Jason felt a hitch in his chest, remembered the dark bruises under his eyes and how tired he’s been lately. “I don’t think he’s slept in days, if not weeks.”

“Right,” Dick made soft eye contact with Jason, gently resting his hand on his brother’s knee. “Because he’s worried about you. If he really didn’t care and wanted to forget about you Jay, he wouldn’t be losing sleep over this. Why do you run away?”

Jason thought, dug deep inside himself to the root of the problem, a weed that needed to be ripped out from its soil. “I don’t want them to get hurt.” He whispered, bringing his coffee closer to his face to hide from his brother in a cloud of fog. “Bad things usually happen when I’m around people for too long. Like mum, and dad. I just want them to be ok, and I thought if I left them, they’d be happier…”

Dick moved his hand from his thigh to tightly grip his shoulder. “Kori and Roy are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves if they need to. And they love you too much to care about that. They aren’t going to leave you because some drug lords attacked them. I’ve seen the way they look at you, they love you.”

Jason’s hands were shaking so hard the coffee in his mug was sloshing over the brim and burning his fingers. “I guess so.” He sighed, taking another scalding sip.

Patting Jason on the shoulder, Dick leaned back and took a sip of his own coffee. “You can stay here tonight Jay. It’s pretty late, and I don’t have work tomorrow. If you decide to stay until I wake up, you’ll get to say hi to Harper and Cullen when they come over.”

“Thanks, Dickie, but I’m positive that won’t be needed.”

They both turned to look at Dick’s open window to see Roy with his arms crossed in Kori’s arms, her hair a burning fire and her eyes an angry green. “I’ll come by for his bike tomorrow. But right now, we’re taking him home.”

Jason sheepishly stood, saying goodbye to Dick and walked towards his lovers, not saying a work as Kori grabbed him and Roy glared daggers into the side of his head. When they touch landed, Kori dragged him straight to the bedroom and shoved him on the bed. “What are you- “

They both collapsed on either side of him, curling themselves into him and keeping him in place. “Tomorrow morning, you’re going to talk to us about everything,” Kori whispered into his ear, sending shivers down his neck.

“But tonight,” Roy finished, tracing Jason’s side with the tips of his fingers, trailing between his legs and over his stomach, making Jason’s breath hitch and his cheeks flare red. “We prove how much we love you, and then we sleep.”

That was the first time Jason ran off.

 

 


	5. The first time Kori fell unconscious

The first time Kori went unconscious, they were running for their lives.

Kori was held in Jason’s arms, head pillowed on his shoulder as he tried to be gentle despite the rockiness of his running. Roy ran beside him, turning back every now and then to fire an arrow at their pursuers because he knew he wasn’t strong enough to carry the Princess and while Roy was the best archer in all of Gotham, almost better than Green Arrow himself, and could fire multiple arrows at the speed of sound, it couldn’t quite compare to the press of a trigger and a bullet flying from its barrel to land into enemy after enemy.

So here they were, a bleeding Kori held tightly in Jason’s arms who was _definitely_ not favoring his left side and Roy holding up the rear, wrists and fingers twitching from the constant strain from pulling back arrow after arrow and had burn marks he could smell that went all the way down his left leg.

Roy was mentally cursing himself for not being stronger, not being able to hold Kori securely against his chest and run with his body shielding her and have Jason shoot from his side, knew that would be the tactical option would be to switch positions but also knew that if he were to run with Kori as Jason was doing now he would flag behind in seconds. It never made sense to Roy, how he could spend most days and every night pulling back arrows on tightly coiled strings enough to get a fair amount of muscle on his arms, probably enough to hold Kori.

But no, Kori had muscles all over her body, that and her alien super strength enough to make up for both of them. Jason had muscles in his back and his legs, from years of flipping across rooftops as Robin with the Bat, and while Roy so admired and loved those muscles he couldn’t help but think sometimes, like now, how much more useful he would be if he could be like them.

A bullet flew past his ear, smashing a streetlight into a million shards of falling broken glass and plunging the street into darkness. If it weren’t from the perpetual glow from Kori’s hair, they would be totally blind. Roy spun on his heal, firing a netting arrow behind him into the darkness, grinning to himself despite it all when he heard a grunt, a shout of surprise and the loud thud of multiple people hitting the floor in a tangle of limbs and rope.

The thrum of Jason’s bike had Roy turning a sharp corner into the alley, hopping on the back facing backward as Jason placed Kori gently against his chest, put his helmet on her and speeding out the alley mouth as Roy shot arrows at anyone who came near.

He could hear Jason panting even over the sound of the engine, could feel him too from where he sat pressed back to back against him- the rapid rise and fall of his chest and shoulders, the frantic beating of his heart through layers of leather and metal and skin.

An arrow was notched the whole ride, reaching over time to time to squeeze Jason’s arm reassuringly, Roy watched the rear with tense muscles and focused eyes. He could feel Kori, usually hotter than a furnace in summer, now much too cold and much too still, her hair dulling in the darkness.

They drove to the furthest safe house, one so far away and hard to get to it was hardly ever used, but without knowing if they were still being followed and they needed to go somewhere, they went to the small safe house hidden in the narrow twists and turns of the hills and woods outside of Gotham.

Only when the steady thrum of the engine was silence and the lights of the safe house were switched on and Kori was gently carried in to be laid on the couch did they let out a relieved breath and spoke.

“She’ll be fine.” Roy attempted to comfort them both as Jason rushed around the house looking for whatever medical supplies they kept in stock. “She’ll be fine. It was just a knock on the head.”

“Uh huh.” Jason grunted, pulling a lousy first aid kit from under the couch. “And if she has a concussion?”

“We take her to Wayne Manor and have Alfred take a look at her.” Roy insisted. “She’s basically indestructible. Do you know how much it took to get her unconscious in the first place? I doubt she’ll have a concussion.”

Jason bit his bottom lip hard enough to taste blood, falling to his knees beside Kori and pulled out all the medical supplies he thought he needed, reprimanding himself for not keeping them better stocked before he pulled out a bottle of painkillers and thrust them into Roy’s hand.

“You’re probably right.” He admitted, feeling the tight coil in his chest loosen. “But don’t think I didn’t see you get burnt. Take these and I’ll fix you up once I make sure the Princess is alright.”

Grumbling, Roy took the off-white pill bottle from Jason’s outstretched hand and made his way over to the couch, sighing when the thin fabric sunk down to the wooden slats underneath and the sharp springs dug into his skin. “Who uses low level explosives in a tiny warehouse?” he muttered, pulling off his pants and dropping them on the floor by his side. “The warehouse was full of _drugs_. There must have been so much money that they just lost.” Tipping a couple of tablets into his hand, Roy plopped them in his mouth and swallowed them dry.

Snorting, Jason’s hands continued moving rapidly across Kori’s prone body, “Of course you’d know that,” he called, “How bad did you get burned?”

“Of course I would,” Roy muttered too quietly for Jason to hear, then louder, “My whole right leg, some of my hip and a bit on my arm. Second degree on my leg and lessens to first the higher up it goes.”

Hissing in sympathy, Jason reached into the first aid kit and tossed Roy a tube of burn cream. 

“Fuck Roy.” He said, words full of worry. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“What would I have said?” Roy retorted as he snatched the tube out of the air. “’Jason, I know Kori’s unconscious and lying on the ground surrounded by bad guys but I wasn’t careful and was in the blast zone of the explosion and may have gotten burned?’ Don’t be stupid.”

“And you ran like that?”

“You did too.” Roy grumbled, opening the tube. “Don’t think I don’t see you leaning on your right side. What’d you do?”

A moment's pause and then, “I fell on my left wrong. Off a catwalk.”

“How high?”

“Not too high, maybe a story.”

Roy blinked. “As in, a house? A story of a  _ house _ ?”

Jason turned back, looked at Roy confused. “Yeah?”

“Jason, do you know how  _ high _ a story is?” Roy exclaimed, ignoring Jason’s warning look. “It’s really high. ‘Not high, maybe a story’, are you  _ insane _ ?” Standing, he stumbled over to Jason and shoved him off his knees, yanking things out of the med kit. “Keep going with Kori, I just have to make sure nothing is broken and that you’re not about to bleed out.”

“Roy, I don’t need your mothering.” Jason mumbled but didn’t push Roy away, pulling it further out from underneath him so Roy could get a better look. “I think Princess will be fine.” He smoothed her hair back behind her ear, off her face. “Not a concussion. You were right-”

“I always am."

“-but I don’t know when she’ll wake up. It was a pretty nasty bump.”

Tying off the last bandage, Roy pushed Jason’s leg both ways to see anything he may have missed, overlooking Jason’s irritated objections. Satisfied with his job, Roy stood, ruffling Jason’s hair and placing a gentle kiss on Kori’s forehead as he turned and stumbled back to his chair.

Roy wasn’t exactly the most adept in burn care, but he did what he could, wrapping gauze and bandages around his leg until it felt padded enough, knew that his fingers were shaking from overexertion and that the pain would set in tomorrow but he didn’t care because he could feel Jason’s eyes on him, watching his every move and when he lifted his eyes up from his task he met Jason’s eyes and they were  _ hungry _ .

“What are you thinking about, Jay?” He asked, smirking at the answer he knew was coming. The sort of after-battle arousal brought on by adrenaline and the fight for survival every day of their God damned lives that they were all prone to on occasion.

Swallowing thickly, Jason watched Roy work, hair raining down in his face in a messy tangle and shirt riding up his hips to show the skin of his abs and ribs. “I want to kiss you into the couch so hard that you’d end up like Kori.” He admitted, chewing on his tongue as he watched Roy’s smirk get  _ wider _ .

“I don’t know if now is the time or place for that, Jaybird,” Roy admonished, and they both knew he didn’t mean it, not with the honey making his words thick with molasses and sweet promises. “Kori’s still asleep. You really wanna do this here?”

Roy felt an all-consuming weight suddenly pushing him further down into the couch, warm, desperate lips on his and a heavy hand full of calluses and scars gently resting on his hip. “Well, it’ll give Princess a nice view to wake up to.” Jason whispered against his lips. “And then I’ll take a look at your leg.”

A breathy, loving chuckle met their ears, sweet as cotton candy but as rough as glass shards and when they turned around and broke apart Kori was watching them, hand under her head and eyes fluttered open, her lips curling into a smirk. “Don’t stop on my account.” She licked her lips comically, forcing a chuckle out of Roy’s chest and for Jason to roll his eyes. “Although, I can’t say I’m not jealous.

Almost before the words were out of her mouth, Jason and Roy had both sprung up off of the chair, dived on top of Kori and snuggled into the spaces between the rough fabric of the couch and the burning of Kori’s skin. Roy dotted kisses up the back of her neck and into her hairline while Jason kissed her cheeks and her eyelids and her lips.

When Kori’s breathing evened out and she was asleep once again, Roy gently sat up, pulling the ugly blanket off of the back of the couch and draped it over the three of them, tucking Kori in and pulling Jason closer together. “So much for looking at my leg after, huh?” He whispered to Jason. When he heard the first snores and the rise and fall of Jason’s chest, he knew that he wasn’t getting a reply any time soon and instead tucked him closer, placing a kiss on first his head than Kori’s.

Roy realizes that he may not be so strong that he can carry Kori home in a runway chase, or be skilled enough to fire thousands of arrows within the span of a few seconds, but he can do this. He can look after them, the ones he loves, and make sure they are up to fight another day. He can be there for them, and he can love them.

Even though he has to listen to Jason snoring so loud the walls are vibrating and Kori is almost so hot beside him that it’s unbearable, but he wouldn’t change it- change  _ them _ \- for all the riches in the world.

Burying his face in Kori’s hair, Roy closed his eyes and joined his loves in their slumber.

That was the first time Kori went unconscious.


End file.
